Speaker 1: M M all right, everybody, welcome to the State of
Speaker 1: the Lakers postgame show. UM, Like Roger and I were
Speaker 1: just saying, we're super stokes that this nice early game.
Speaker 1: We can all have a good rest of our day
Speaker 1: in a good mood and not have to stress about anything.
Speaker 1: Lakers play again tomorrow at six last game of the season.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an interesting game in the sense that,
Speaker 1: you know, they clearly didn't bring their best effort, but
Speaker 1: they didn't need to. UM, but you could at least
Speaker 1: pay attention to some of the matchups on the floor
Speaker 1: that we've been waiting to see all season. Uh, and
Speaker 1: get a good look at what their core lineups are
Speaker 1: gonna be, basically minus Alex Caruso, who was the only
Speaker 1: guy who was out tonight. Um, today, I should say.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I guess I guess we have to start
Speaker 1: with the wrong So let's start there. Rog what did
Speaker 1: you think of of what you thought from Lebron's return? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought he looked pretty good to me, Like there
Speaker 1: was a few moments where he wasn't really have as
Speaker 1: much burst as he usually does, but he had like
Speaker 1: the huge dunk in the first half, And man, I
Speaker 1: said like the Lakers were running without any point guards
Speaker 1: right for a while there, and just to have to
Speaker 1: go from no point guards to Lebron James running your offense,
Speaker 1: it just looks so much more smooth. They had a
Speaker 1: little scoring drought in the end, but he was getting
Speaker 1: everyone in the right place, running the correct actions, telling
Speaker 1: drum and where to stand to when to tell a
Speaker 1: d to kind of come up. It was good to
Speaker 1: see him back, and he just really just walked into
Speaker 1: what I think he finished with like points, uh, nine assists,
Speaker 1: eight rebounds or something like that, just his normal line.
Speaker 1: He just really walked into that UM office in his
Speaker 1: first game. Note he had not really that much rust
Speaker 1: to me, had the biggest shots in the game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter too. I liked. I thought he looked good.
Speaker 1: I thought he looked fine. Um. He looked like himself,
Speaker 1: which is the most important thing to me. I think
Speaker 1: he'll get his rhythm back, He'll get you know, more
Speaker 1: comfortable um with his athleticism as we go here. But
Speaker 1: just seeing him like back out there playing with this
Speaker 1: unit was the biggest thing. That's what this team needed.
Speaker 1: These wins are really great to get out of the
Speaker 1: planning game would be great, but just seeing Lebron and
Speaker 1: Adie looked back themselves was cool, especially Lebron tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, there were three. They're kind of like three
Speaker 1: elements to the Lebron return that I want to touch on.
Speaker 1: One how he looks physically, to kind of what he
Speaker 1: brings to the offense and how much it changes everything.
Speaker 1: And then three like what what do you make of
Speaker 1: the stuff like what happened at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: which which I want to touch on that as well
Speaker 1: as far as how he looks physically. I thought everyone
Speaker 1: overreacted a little bit to the dunk. Obviously it was amazing,
Speaker 1: But you and I have been hitting on since the
Speaker 1: beginning that you know Lebron's left like wasn't the injured leg,
Speaker 1: and that's his best takeoff leg, and that you know,
Speaker 1: for for what his right foot is, it's gonna mostly
Speaker 1: manifest in my opinion on uh, kind of like off
Speaker 1: motion jumpers where he has to plant on both legs,
Speaker 1: anything that involves, you know, a quick defensive movement one
Speaker 1: way or another. Um, it's also going to affect his
Speaker 1: first step a little bit. You know, he could push
Speaker 1: off his left leg, but that next step is going
Speaker 1: to be that right leg pulling him forward, and all
Speaker 1: of that is part of of his overall mobility above
Speaker 1: and beyond you know him elevating and transition. I thought
Speaker 1: the overall he looked pretty good. I mean, if you look,
Speaker 1: if you really think about it, he kind of coasted
Speaker 1: through that game that wasn't exactly Lebron you know, playoff intensive,
Speaker 1: going crazy. He barely broke a sweat and got his
Speaker 1: you know, his stat line that you just that you
Speaker 1: just laid out. I thought there were a couple of
Speaker 1: examples in the first half. Both of them were and
Speaker 1: ones if I remember correctly, where he showed that burst
Speaker 1: to beat someone off the dribble and get into the paint.
Speaker 1: But I kind of felt like he was testing that
Speaker 1: but not overdoing it, as he kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: ease his way into the game. But overall, physically, I
Speaker 1: think he does look as good as you can hope
Speaker 1: under this circumstance, and he certainly looks good enough to
Speaker 1: be able to bring the level of impact that you
Speaker 1: need from him. But the one play that I said,
Speaker 1: I pointed out on Twitter was that spin move and
Speaker 1: transition where he went into Goga's body and did that
Speaker 1: that kind of purouetting spin move that he always does
Speaker 1: where it's all off of one leg and uh, and
Speaker 1: he kind of lost his balance, didn't quite get the
Speaker 1: lift and he missed the layoup. And you know, when
Speaker 1: Lebron's actually in really good physical condition and he's got
Speaker 1: his legs underneath him, that's one of those moves where
Speaker 1: he just powers through the guy, gets tons of elevation
Speaker 1: and gets an easy lay up out of it. And
Speaker 1: so those are the kinds of plays that we should
Speaker 1: keep an eye on in the next few weeks as
Speaker 1: indicators of how well he's progressing to getting his conditioning
Speaker 1: and getting his legs back. Yeah, for sure. In indiana's
Speaker 1: kind of like a nice team to come back against,
Speaker 1: right there, mouse Turners a bonus, Um even brogged in.
Speaker 1: All these duds are like all defense type of players,
Speaker 1: So it's a good team to kind of come back against. Um.
Speaker 1: They had I think Goga blistered with their center. Right
Speaker 1: there was rim protector. He's not really gonna stop Lebron
Speaker 1: when he wants to. I felt like when Lebron wanted
Speaker 1: to attack the room, he could. He got to the room.
Speaker 1: Like you said, those uh, those two and one. So
Speaker 1: it was a good game for him be able to
Speaker 1: attack and just go against a team that can't really stop.
Speaker 1: And you're right, like he was really just relaxed to
Speaker 1: this game. Like, I didn't think he broke his way.
Speaker 1: I thought he really liked that. Like I said, I
Speaker 1: thought he walked into his eight and seven like he
Speaker 1: was really relaxed. Um. Other than that like fourth quarter
Speaker 1: where he kind of turned it on. So it's good
Speaker 1: to see him get back tomorrow. I think the Pelicans
Speaker 1: also have a lot of guys out, a good team
Speaker 1: to kind of go against. I'm not sure he'll play
Speaker 1: in the back to back, um, but yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: he thought he looked good. This is a good team
Speaker 1: to go against. You can't this is not like an
Speaker 1: all defense team, right, So it was felt very like
Speaker 1: All Star Game a little bit like that through the game,
Speaker 1: like a lot of no defense and the type of
Speaker 1: possessions back and forth, a lot of layups given a
Speaker 1: lot of dunks. I think they had like nine dunks
Speaker 1: within like the third quarter, a lot of us um.
Speaker 1: So it was a good team, a good game for
Speaker 1: him to just get his sweat and even just getting
Speaker 1: his sway. He put up eight and seven, um and
Speaker 1: just have him organized in the offense. I just look,
Speaker 1: it looks so much more clean without you know, having
Speaker 1: to have PhD have the ball for for thirty two
Speaker 1: men tonight. Yeah. So this is the This is that
Speaker 1: second thing I wanted to touch on, which is just
Speaker 1: him in general controlling the offense and how different it looks.
Speaker 1: You know, uh, there are all there. There are always
Speaker 1: openings when a defense is really engaged in kind of
Speaker 1: jumping around and shading other players. There's always the openings,
Speaker 1: and it just takes a specific type of offensive player
Speaker 1: a Lebron and Yokich, you know, Luca, you know, a
Speaker 1: gifted passer to uh to to identify those openings and
Speaker 1: to make teams pay when that happens. And you know,
Speaker 1: there were two or three lobs in that game where
Speaker 1: you know, lobs that the Lakers have basically completely missed
Speaker 1: over the last you know, thirty games, where you know,
Speaker 1: you know, easy easy dunks to drum in and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis at the rim. These are the kinds of plays
Speaker 1: that Lebron reopens up just in general, like his ability
Speaker 1: to you know, kind of stand at the top of
Speaker 1: the key, direct traffic get guys to lean one way,
Speaker 1: get a switch somewhere where he can identify another opening
Speaker 1: without expending too much energy. That's the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that I think was missing from the Lakers offense in general,
Speaker 1: and it was really nice to have that back because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like as as as
Speaker 1: long as you know, we've we've rooted for carus So
Speaker 1: to be able to make those plays, We've rooted for
Speaker 1: Shooter to be able to make those plays. We've wanted
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis to get better at reading double teams. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's going to be
Speaker 1: about Lebron making those decisions and having him back and
Speaker 1: kind of the Laker offense getting easy, easy looks again,
Speaker 1: which is not something they used to get that to me,
Speaker 1: that to me, it was really refreshing. Yeah, my favorite
Speaker 1: play might have been like that play right before the half.
Speaker 1: They kind of showed with this whole team. We talked
Speaker 1: about it all year that it's built around Lebron right
Speaker 1: and his shock creation. So like Drummond try to come
Speaker 1: down and I think he tried to seal in the
Speaker 1: post and then Lebron told him to move into that
Speaker 1: dunker spot and then he got a d to come
Speaker 1: up for a little ball screen right, and then so
Speaker 1: you got a d roll and got him the ball,
Speaker 1: and then the eighty dished it to Drummond for a dunk,
Speaker 1: and just kind of showed like his kind of control
Speaker 1: of the floor. He had Casey b in one corner.
Speaker 1: I forgot who was in the other corner, but it
Speaker 1: showed like this team has built around his shock creation
Speaker 1: and even if he's not, he can still kind of
Speaker 1: get into rhythm in these these few games. And then
Speaker 1: that first round, Um, it looks like they're not going
Speaker 1: to play the Clippers, so whoever they played, Denver or Phoenix,
Speaker 1: he can kind of get his get his rhythm going
Speaker 1: as the games go on. So I thought it was
Speaker 1: a good night from Lebron. Yeah, so let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about that last thing, which was the way the offense
Speaker 1: looked there in the fourth fourth quarter when things kind
Speaker 1: of bogged down. Um, I think you mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 1: The game kind of had a little bit of an
Speaker 1: All Star Game feel to it, which, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a bit of an exaggeration, but
Speaker 1: you're right in the sense that it was an open
Speaker 1: floor with two teams that were playing sloppy defense and
Speaker 1: giving up a lot of easy looks, and you know,
Speaker 1: the drum in debt of five lineups are really going
Speaker 1: to rear their ugly head against specific teams. You know,
Speaker 1: against a Clippers, against you know, UH, Phoenix or Utah,
Speaker 1: any team that is a is a well put together
Speaker 1: defensive team. And then it specifically the the Indiana Pacers,
Speaker 1: who I think they're four teenth and defense this year,
Speaker 1: so they're not like, you know, some crazy shutdown defense,
Speaker 1: but they were missing a bunch of guys too, so
Speaker 1: you might think of that, you might think of them
Speaker 1: as a below average defensive team. But when when it's
Speaker 1: when it's winning time and you know, they think they
Speaker 1: have a chance, you know, they're within five with six
Speaker 1: minutes left or whatever, within nine, and they think they
Speaker 1: have a chance, and all of them are doing their
Speaker 1: jobs and all of them are focused, and all the
Speaker 1: easy stuff gets taken away. That's when the drummond that
Speaker 1: the five stuff is gonna show up. And you you
Speaker 1: saw it in the in the form of you know,
Speaker 1: all of the uh they all they could do is
Speaker 1: run screen and roll with Drummond. They had to put
Speaker 1: a d as a spot up shooter because when they
Speaker 1: ran the A D Lebron pick and roll, nothing was
Speaker 1: open because there was a third a third defender involved,
Speaker 1: and so what ended up happening is their primary decision maker,
Speaker 1: Lebron ended up settling for a lot of jumpers, and
Speaker 1: it worked out in the end because he ended up
Speaker 1: making a bunch at the end. But the stagnation is
Speaker 1: a result of the the best passer on the form, Lebron,
Speaker 1: not seeing any openings, and the openings aren't there because
Speaker 1: of Drummond in a defense that's focused and taking away
Speaker 1: the easy stuff and making you, you know, uh, generate
Speaker 1: an advantage. But all of the all of those Lebron
Speaker 1: and ad actions and other defenders involved because of the
Speaker 1: lack of spacing, which I think is something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on, yeah, for sure. And they I think
Speaker 1: they also had t HD on the floor if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, right up to this game, so they had him,
Speaker 1: they had th HD, and then they had a D
Speaker 1: trying to be in spot up. His jumper wasn't really
Speaker 1: going as well late in the game and they were
Speaker 1: really doubling hard. I thought he wasn't really good passing
Speaker 1: out of doubles in the fourth quarter and if you
Speaker 1: saw that as well. So it's basically just Lebron trying
Speaker 1: to create with Andre Drummond, Who've got some good looks
Speaker 1: in the paint. Like I thought, Drummond had actually a
Speaker 1: pretty good game. We can talk talk about him later,
Speaker 1: but you have some good licks in the paint. His
Speaker 1: flip shots didn't go which you know it's gonna go
Speaker 1: in or not. It's kind of how it goes with
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond. Um. And then Lebron hit his jump shots
Speaker 1: like and then they switched a few of the actions.
Speaker 1: You got some step back three is that really ended
Speaker 1: the game? But yeah, that's spacing is week. We've been
Speaker 1: talking about this spacing since last year. Right, This is
Speaker 1: the same thing with Javel, same thing with Dwight Hard
Speaker 1: or Dwight Hard. Maybe a little bit different. Um, those
Speaker 1: dudes are lob threat, so it helps a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But still that same spacing is there. Right, you go
Speaker 1: to Lebron, Javel, Lebron, Dwight genial action. Uh, at the
Speaker 1: end of games, it's gonna it's gonna look like this,
Speaker 1: it's gonna look clunky. Um in the in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure if this is like an actual, like
Speaker 1: a real game, they wanted to win a little bit more,
Speaker 1: they would have put a D at the five right eventually,
Speaker 1: especially against Indiana, who doesn't even have a real five
Speaker 1: out there. I think they have, Remember they have Sampson
Speaker 1: or Goga to close. I'm not really sure, but it
Speaker 1: was someone who should not be it was defend a
Speaker 1: D yet I think it was. I think it was. Remember, Okay, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so still that's a that's a guy that you can
Speaker 1: easily well, you can play a D at the five
Speaker 1: with anyone, but again, especially a guy like that who's
Speaker 1: a spacing not really a post up center, right, not
Speaker 1: really a guy who's gonna bruise you down low. So
Speaker 1: that's what I thought in those spacing is going to
Speaker 1: be there with Entred, just what's going to have to be? Uh,
Speaker 1: It's okay if your defense is stifling, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like you gotta get the trade off, Like
Speaker 1: if you're trading off spacing, but you're getting back ridiculous
Speaker 1: defensive pressure that's forcing the other team to stagnate and
Speaker 1: and wearing them down physically while simultaneously getting offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: and other things that add value to the game. Then
Speaker 1: we can sit back and look at it and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is working out. But I'm not saying it was
Speaker 1: drum Ins fault, but the defensive effort from the Lakers
Speaker 1: at the end of that game was embarrassing. I mean,
Speaker 1: on the last play when Lebron missed that crazy step
Speaker 1: back and again this is Labron has a tendency to
Speaker 1: do this when he does not feel threatened, which he
Speaker 1: very clearly did not today. But he missed that step
Speaker 1: back three and just didn't get back on defense. And
Speaker 1: it was a five point game with like thirty seconds left,
Speaker 1: so in theory, if they scored there, you would have
Speaker 1: been back in a one session game. And and I
Speaker 1: think Harris Laverna end up missing a three or something
Speaker 1: so it didn't matter. But again, like it's just the Lakers,
Speaker 1: weren't you know, if you have to settle for jumpers
Speaker 1: because Drummonds out there and there's a lack of spacing, fine,
Speaker 1: but you need to punish them in every other facet
Speaker 1: of the game for their lack of size to match
Speaker 1: up against you. And I thought I thought that that
Speaker 1: was the part that got to iron out, Like if
Speaker 1: you're gonna do that lineup, you have to be really
Speaker 1: sharp defensively. You've got to crash the offensive glass wall.
Speaker 1: Also having people who get back in transition. It just
Speaker 1: needs to be sharp everywhere else, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: But I don't think. I think too often people point
Speaker 1: to Lebron in this case and be like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: no movement, Oh he's settling. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I mean those things are true, but that is a
Speaker 1: side effect of the lack of spacing, because I promise
Speaker 1: you Lebron would love to get things freely moving and
Speaker 1: a couple of driving kicks for an open shot. It's
Speaker 1: just the driving lanes aren't there, the simple pick and
Speaker 1: roll actions aren't working because there's a third defender involved.
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's classic stagnation that occurs when the
Speaker 1: defense stops messing around. It takes away the easy stuff
Speaker 1: and you are playing with extra defenders involved into play.
Speaker 1: No for sure, And again I didn't think the defense
Speaker 1: was locked in all night like. It felt like they
Speaker 1: just tried to kind of get Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: going offense, with which which they did right. They got
Speaker 1: those two, They got those two going and the defense
Speaker 1: wasn't really clocked in. UM. I thought the clothesouts were
Speaker 1: pretty bad, and every time they went up like ten,
Speaker 1: they just take their foot off the gas pedal. But
Speaker 1: like went ten and eleven, just stopped playing, UM stopped
Speaker 1: going for rebounds. The pace has only had eight offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: but it felt like a lot more than that. They
Speaker 1: got a lot of second chance points, a lot of
Speaker 1: balls that just hit the floor right, a lot of
Speaker 1: rebounds that hit the floor before anyone went on it.
Speaker 1: I felt like, so the defense wasn't where it's at.
Speaker 1: But like I think the most important thing is lebron
Speaker 1: A d kind of looked like themselves offensively right the
Speaker 1: space ship She's gonna be there with With Andre Drummond,
Speaker 1: that's just how it is. I just don't see him
Speaker 1: like playing, especially with gasol. Because I didn't get any
Speaker 1: miss tonight, I really don't expect that UM in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: Andrew Drummond got most of the center minutes tonight. He
Speaker 1: played a lot with lebron A d Uh and even Shrewder.
Speaker 1: But again, if like shrewders not hitting his jump shots,
Speaker 1: t HD is out there, there's just nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: We can't can't expect Lebron and tried to drive into
Speaker 1: three people. Um A D also wasn't comfortable with his
Speaker 1: double teams how they were playing them, so he was
Speaker 1: just standing in the corner as well. So that Laking
Speaker 1: Lake Game Office, I'm not really worried about about that.
Speaker 1: I'm not terribly worried about it either, because I do
Speaker 1: think that the they'll be with a D at the
Speaker 1: five for the most part, and you know, they're just
Speaker 1: flat out Lebron is one of on the shortlist of
Speaker 1: people that you should really trust and crunch time to
Speaker 1: consistently make the right decision. So I'm not worried about that. UM.
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk a little bit about the rotation though,
Speaker 1: because we got our first peak at what the Laker
Speaker 1: rotation looks like at full strength minus Caruso. UM, I
Speaker 1: think we can safely th HD was the first guy
Speaker 1: off the bench, so I think we can safely assume
Speaker 1: that that's kind of where Carusoe would slot in. I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of I know where THHD was. We
Speaker 1: didn't see any Marcasol, we saw a lot of Mantraz
Speaker 1: with a D. We saw that bench lineup get run
Speaker 1: by Shrewder and Lebron and we did see mc lamore,
Speaker 1: although he was strangely unaggressive today. I thought he passed
Speaker 1: up on some open shots, which was kind of jarring
Speaker 1: considering the way he used to play. But I guess
Speaker 1: I should say, what is What was your kind of
Speaker 1: a takeaway from the rotation? Was there anything that you
Speaker 1: liked that you didn't like, anything that you thought was
Speaker 1: interesting just in terms of how the subs were handled today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the only thing I didn't like, I guess was like
Speaker 1: that that three guard lineup, but I was like, I
Speaker 1: think it was th H t West. I forgot who
Speaker 1: the other guard was, um, but it was just like
Speaker 1: a that lineup that Ben Marcamarre there go it was
Speaker 1: THHD ben Marcamore And those two off the ball were
Speaker 1: just really bad, I thought, especially if Ben Marcamore wasn't
Speaker 1: giving the shooting. And then t H. I thought he
Speaker 1: had a really nice game off the ball. He had
Speaker 1: like two threes um offensively, but his defense still he
Speaker 1: was getting lost lot of back cuts and I thought
Speaker 1: this was a game for Tress right, like this is
Speaker 1: a game for him to play. Um, he gave a
Speaker 1: lot of it back in my opinion. Like hard Um,
Speaker 1: he wasn't really doing much on defense. Samson had a
Speaker 1: career night though that a lot of that was like
Speaker 1: him finishing over him. Um, this is a good this
Speaker 1: is supposed to be the matchup he can play. Though
Speaker 1: that they have a small ball five that they play.
Speaker 1: They put Tres as the backup five, Tress playing with
Speaker 1: a d um That that's why I thought he played tonight.
Speaker 1: And again, all these guys to me are magic dependent.
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything really wrong with the rotation. Um.
Speaker 1: I miss Alex Russo, to be honest, and missed him tonight,
Speaker 1: like I thought they needed one more kind of guard
Speaker 1: defender out there. But other than that, thought it was fine.
Speaker 1: Shrewder looked like, uh, he was kind of still getting
Speaker 1: himself in rhythm. I thought he picked it up in
Speaker 1: the second half. It looks like they kind of cut
Speaker 1: his minutes off in the fourth quarter because I think
Speaker 1: they closed with th HD if I remember correctly. So so, yeah,
Speaker 1: how about you. Did you see anything interesting from the rotation? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So quickly on Montrez, I thought, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: thought this was a great example of a matchup where
Speaker 1: he could succeed. But I'm gonna cut in the same
Speaker 1: slack that I want to cut that maclamore, which is
Speaker 1: you know, the deep. The Laker defense as a unit
Speaker 1: wasn't very polished, so it tends to accentuate guy's flaws.
Speaker 1: And I do think for both Treads and and and
Speaker 1: uh McLamore, there are there are better opportunities for them
Speaker 1: to succeed in this defense when everyone's doing their job. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, for instance, like Montrez was kind of cotton
Speaker 1: no man's land a lot tonight because of the sloppy
Speaker 1: rotations and was frequently out of position, constantly trying to
Speaker 1: cut off driving lanes from guys who were getting beat
Speaker 1: on straight line drives, which is which is kind of
Speaker 1: a symptom of lazy defense, lazy closeouts. So just in general,
Speaker 1: like I think, I think it could look better, um
Speaker 1: for both of those guys. But yes, they were sloppy,
Speaker 1: you right, Montrese gave back a lot of that. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing to Jakar Sampson, he you know, he's
Speaker 1: kind of like we're shown Holmes, like if he's going
Speaker 1: to take a bunch of these crazy push shots from
Speaker 1: seven to ten ft and they all go in like
Speaker 1: some sometimes that's just that's this is not really a
Speaker 1: whole lot you can do about that. You have to
Speaker 1: punish him to say, well, the same way you punished
Speaker 1: Montrez about using his lack of size against him and
Speaker 1: really starting to physically man handle him. UM. I wish
Speaker 1: it would have played a little bit more Wesley Matthews.
Speaker 1: I think he only played twelve minutes tonight. UM. I
Speaker 1: would imagine Dennis Shrewder's limit had something to do with
Speaker 1: him coming back as well and just his conditioning because
Speaker 1: he only played twenty seven minutes. I thought k CP
Speaker 1: looked awesome, and I thought Kuzma looked awesome, And there's
Speaker 1: no reason for there's no player that we're really worried
Speaker 1: about at this point except for maybe Mark Keith Morris UM.
Speaker 1: And the truth of the matter is that they don't
Speaker 1: need him as much as they needed him last year
Speaker 1: because they have the guard depth to go um with
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d at the four or five, and
Speaker 1: because Kuzmas so much better. A lot of times Mark
Speaker 1: Kith kind of played in the role that Kuzma was
Speaker 1: in last year, so that I don't necessarily think keeps
Speaker 1: cold shooting is as much of a worry as it
Speaker 1: would have been last year where they really needed him
Speaker 1: in those uh as in like a small ball five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like your point on Samson with the Ployers because
Speaker 1: I thought Carris Liver hit a like a lot of
Speaker 1: tough shots tonight, like a bunch of like step back fadeaways.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure you could really do much with so Like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't really have any questions with the rotation. I
Speaker 1: would have liked marked at least get in there a
Speaker 1: little bit, um, But it looks like they were just
Speaker 1: gonna they were just gonna sit in tonight, So I
Speaker 1: guess I kind of wanted to move on. Like to
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, what do you what do you see from him?
Speaker 1: He had a huge first half one points. I think
Speaker 1: in the first half he looks good, like again, he
Speaker 1: looks like he's just uh like building off his last games, right,
Speaker 1: like he's just continuing to get better. Um, his jumper
Speaker 1: wasn't really falling because getting to the rim they had
Speaker 1: no one to kind of stop him. Download what else
Speaker 1: did you see from him? And I thought he would
Speaker 1: I thought he really got going. I I thought he
Speaker 1: played a great game. Um. You know the thing with
Speaker 1: a d is that he that he's starting to figure
Speaker 1: out too, is that he can actually kind of go
Speaker 1: up over some of these double teams almost Joel almost
Speaker 1: Joel and Bead style. Um, he had a two or
Speaker 1: three of them like this today where he was on
Speaker 1: the right block, you know, dribbling the strong hand and
Speaker 1: and would would power dribble into the middle the double
Speaker 1: would come. But when the double would come, he would
Speaker 1: just kind of gather and go low and then rip
Speaker 1: through and go up high and shoot his little hook shot.
Speaker 1: And basically one of two things is gonna happen there.
Speaker 1: You're gonna draw the foul or you're gonna get up
Speaker 1: over everybody, in which case you have a really high
Speaker 1: percentage hook shot there. And what I like about that
Speaker 1: is it's an alternative counter two. Okay, I'm not seeing
Speaker 1: the floor super well, I'm having trouble with these double teams.
Speaker 1: How do I make him pay for doubling me? And
Speaker 1: I think that's I think Joel Embiad has made a
Speaker 1: living out of that this year, And I think that's
Speaker 1: a great example of a way that he can kind
Speaker 1: of counter that is just taking that kind of James Harden,
Speaker 1: Joel embiad ripped through to the middle as he goes
Speaker 1: into his hook shot. Um, you know, the big thing
Speaker 1: is he's starting to get those easy shots again, to
Speaker 1: the stuff from Lebron and pick and roll, because that's
Speaker 1: how Ad hits that magic thirty number. Is he gets
Speaker 1: lots of easy, easy stuff mixed in with his difficult stuff,
Speaker 1: which then allows him to hit his numbers. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think he continues to look great physically. I didn't
Speaker 1: see him laboring the groin at all today, did you.
Speaker 1: I thought he thought he looked great. Um, so I
Speaker 1: I am cautiously optimistic that this can work. You know,
Speaker 1: I think we need to be ready for some Lebron
Speaker 1: sloppiness and turnovers and miss jump shots. I think we
Speaker 1: need to be prepared for some defensive kinks just because
Speaker 1: these guys have been played together a lot. But I
Speaker 1: don't see any glaring concerns at this point. It kind
Speaker 1: of seems to be coming together at the right time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The big indicator to me is his free throw attempts. Right.
Speaker 1: He shot ten free throws again tonight, Like I thought
Speaker 1: his aggressive this kind of waned down the stretch. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he got tired or something like. But
Speaker 1: but again, ten free throws, that's awesome. He took eleven
Speaker 1: shots in the first quarter, which I thought was huge.
Speaker 1: Just seeing him still aggressive with Lebron out there right
Speaker 1: Lebron said, like you said, get some really easy looks.
Speaker 1: A lot of screen action with him, him and Shrewder,
Speaker 1: I thought built a little bit of chemistry. As the
Speaker 1: game went on, Shrewder found him on a on a
Speaker 1: few drives UM, and again just seeing him look like himself.
Speaker 1: I think it's the biggest thing going to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: We talked about it. Those two have to look right.
Speaker 1: All this other stuff is kind of It's kind of
Speaker 1: still gravy to me. I'm getting to win, um. Everyone
Speaker 1: else kind of getting the role Shrewder getting back from
Speaker 1: from COVID and everything. But those two they look like
Speaker 1: they're they're rolling as the playoffs go here. So hopefully
Speaker 1: they can get the win tomorrow UM and then try
Speaker 1: to stay out of this, stay out of this playing
Speaker 1: if Denver can win tomorrow. But a D I thought
Speaker 1: it looked really really good. His three still UM didn't
Speaker 1: fall tonight. He was one for four from three, but
Speaker 1: he had two offensive rebounds like he was attacking the
Speaker 1: glass double double ten boards um and again just I
Speaker 1: thought he was impactful. He wasn't. He wasn't the defender
Speaker 1: that he was against New York, right, Like I didn't
Speaker 1: think he didn't he didn't bring with yeah, the whole
Speaker 1: team again, like they looked like they were playing at
Speaker 1: tenning m Like it looked very much like a super
Speaker 1: super early game, just try to get the game out
Speaker 1: of the way kind of thing. But he looked, he
Speaker 1: looked good. I thought, is he was moving well, which
Speaker 1: is the most important thing. You You touched on this
Speaker 1: a second ago, and it was an interesting, uh kind
Speaker 1: of side plot there. A D was a lot more
Speaker 1: aggressive when Lebron went to the bench at the halfway
Speaker 1: through the first quarter, and that's kind of when he
Speaker 1: got going. And the thing is is, like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think there's a little bit too much of an
Speaker 1: unselfishness thing that goes on between the two of them,
Speaker 1: and Lebron will snap out of it and crunch time
Speaker 1: and he'll start shooting. But the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is is you're right. A D needs to be that
Speaker 1: aggressive when Lebron is on the floor because Lebron wants
Speaker 1: him to look Lebron's whole basketball identity is like he's
Speaker 1: going to have his phases where he's super aggressive, but
Speaker 1: outside of that, he's begging you guys to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: He's begging shooters to to to to fire away if
Speaker 1: there's an inch of space. He's begging guys to go
Speaker 1: up and pick and roll and try to draw foul,
Speaker 1: try to get something going. And so I hope to
Speaker 1: see more of that from a D. And as far
Speaker 1: as his three point shooting goes like that is p
Speaker 1: would have been my biggest nitpick of him um this
Speaker 1: season is the lack of three point shot volume, because
Speaker 1: I thought that was a huge part of his game
Speaker 1: in the postseason and it's a huge part of the
Speaker 1: Lakers spacing getting getting You know, the difference between Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert being a non factor in that type of series
Speaker 1: and him kind of being a factor is gonna come
Speaker 1: down to a D being an aggressive three point shooter,
Speaker 1: you know, because at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: not about whether or not he makes a few of them.
Speaker 1: It's about whether or not Gobert guards him out there.
Speaker 1: And the only way that Gobert or an Eton or
Speaker 1: a zoobots whoever, whoever it is that they go against
Speaker 1: the only way they're going to go out there is
Speaker 1: if he's taken six or seven of them a game.
Speaker 1: And I think that's so important and and and I
Speaker 1: think he can get those attempts without disrupting the rest
Speaker 1: of his offense, Like it doesn't fatigue him, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers will be happy with him taking
Speaker 1: more shots. So I think I think that's an easy
Speaker 1: fixed for for some of his rhythm stuff. It's just
Speaker 1: just happen be a little bit more aggressive if he
Speaker 1: catches and has a look at the rim from three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's much more important when you're playing playing with like
Speaker 1: a nonspacing five, right, Like, it has to be the
Speaker 1: one that that's shooting. If he's at the five, you
Speaker 1: can kind of get away with it a little bit more.
Speaker 1: You can run more street actions, have him dive into
Speaker 1: the rim. But he's playing next to Treads and Drummond.
Speaker 1: He has to take those three. So one for four,
Speaker 1: I'm glad he's even taking him, you know, even if
Speaker 1: he's not making them. Um, he's taking four. He took
Speaker 1: four tonight, which I think was good. Some of them
Speaker 1: were I think more contested than than others, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he has to shoot them. I think if he's playing
Speaker 1: next to like Marcusol and the Market kind of be
Speaker 1: the spacer, right like, he can be the one on
Speaker 1: the paint and then mark and kind of take those threes.
Speaker 1: But he has a big part of the playoffs. His
Speaker 1: whole jumper was a huge part of the playoffs, right
Speaker 1: Like I think his mid range games still, um, it
Speaker 1: wasn't great tonight, but he got a lot at the rim,
Speaker 1: so I thought that was fine. But if he's not
Speaker 1: comfortable shooting him in the mid range, like, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna go and bomb threes, Like, I just
Speaker 1: don't think that's how it works for him. He's gonna
Speaker 1: build inside out kind of thing, hit those ompers, get
Speaker 1: his rhythm going, and then from there kind of bringing
Speaker 1: out to three. But you're right, if he's playing next
Speaker 1: to Drummonds facing five, he has to take those for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. And then the last thing I had on
Speaker 1: my list that we can touch on and then we
Speaker 1: can if you have anything else, and then we can
Speaker 1: get to some guests. But I you know, th HD
Speaker 1: I thought at a sloppy, sloppy game, defensively, but I
Speaker 1: think we should give all the Lakers a pass and
Speaker 1: that or I should say we should collectively blame all
Speaker 1: the Lakers, not um uh, you know, not single anybody out.
Speaker 1: But on the offensive end, I really liked what THHD
Speaker 1: did off the ball. And you know, there I was
Speaker 1: listening to the Laker film podcasts yesterday or possibly the
Speaker 1: day before. They were kind of bouncing some ideas off about,
Speaker 1: you know, how th HD is an on ball player
Speaker 1: and how he's most comfortable when the ball is in
Speaker 1: his hands. And while I do agree with that, I
Speaker 1: actually think he's a good off ball option because he
Speaker 1: is capable of making more complex catd attacking closeouts in
Speaker 1: a more complicated way, like you know the k cps
Speaker 1: of this roster, the Wesley Matthews types of guys. They
Speaker 1: can knock down an open shot, they can pump, baken, sidestep,
Speaker 1: and if the guy blows by and take a shot,
Speaker 1: they can put the ball on the floor once or
Speaker 1: twice and maybe kick it out to a shooter or
Speaker 1: get all the way to the rim. But like PhD
Speaker 1: has the ability too, after he's attacked the clothes out
Speaker 1: to make a counter move or secondary move and he
Speaker 1: can make the more complicated passes out of those closeouts.
Speaker 1: And I thought today it was a great example of
Speaker 1: th h t being awesome off the ball. Um He
Speaker 1: knocked down a couple of open threes in the first
Speaker 1: half and in the second half off of kickouts from Lebron,
Speaker 1: which is going to be the most important thing if
Speaker 1: he wants to try to play, just because of the
Speaker 1: way spacing is gonna work. But then he also had
Speaker 1: a bunch of these really nice clothes out attacks where
Speaker 1: he got into the lane and either either created something
Speaker 1: at the rim that led to an offensive rebound put
Speaker 1: back or drop off to Montrez and lane for a dunk.
Speaker 1: That kind of stuff, I think. Is it the the
Speaker 1: ability to really make a team pay for being sloppy
Speaker 1: on their clothesouts. I think is a is a is
Speaker 1: a huge asset, and you know, I still think those
Speaker 1: minutes have to go to to t a two caruso. However,
Speaker 1: if he can figure out that defensive end and he
Speaker 1: can be that successful off ball, I think that is
Speaker 1: a better option than McLamore and possibly in a shrunken rotation,
Speaker 1: a better option than Wesley Matthews, depending on the matchup,
Speaker 1: So I think there is an opportunity for him to play.
Speaker 1: If he's gonna play like this, It's just about being consistent.
Speaker 1: It's about being dependable. It can't be something that he's
Speaker 1: you know, sloppy one night and then has it all
Speaker 1: together the next. He has to be a veteran in
Speaker 1: that regard. So I think I think I've changed for
Speaker 1: a little bit from being no way he should play two.
Speaker 1: This might work if he if he's a little bit
Speaker 1: more work persistent. Yeah, I thought he looked awesome next
Speaker 1: to the starters, right, and then you could tell like
Speaker 1: all those like ball handling duties that he had that
Speaker 1: they had to do when Lebron and Trudeau route, they
Speaker 1: kind of paid dividends. Like he looks like he's grown
Speaker 1: up as likes a playmaker, like a player, right, not
Speaker 1: as many crazy turnovers anymore. Like he's driving with some
Speaker 1: like purpose. He gets the rim to try to finance.
Speaker 1: He had a really nice finish and transition that I
Speaker 1: just thought was special, Like he got to the rim um,
Speaker 1: went through contact, flipped it up the reverse on the
Speaker 1: other side. Just skills that like a lot of dudes
Speaker 1: just don't have. I don't I just don't want him
Speaker 1: playing next to like because he played in that lineup
Speaker 1: with like Ben macklemore um. And then also I think
Speaker 1: Treads was the five there, right, and he had Kuzuma
Speaker 1: at the four. Just a really small lineup, really bad
Speaker 1: defensive lineup in total, right, so you can put him
Speaker 1: next to like two and three other defenders, like, it's
Speaker 1: just not really gonna gonna go well. But I thought
Speaker 1: he looked awesome next to the to the starting lineup.
Speaker 1: He he hit his threes really confidently, right, like he
Speaker 1: catches you really in inconfidence. And yeah, I thought he
Speaker 1: looked he looked good tonight, like he looks like he's
Speaker 1: grown up. Like I don't know if those those dividends
Speaker 1: are going to play off in the playoffs. Was if
Speaker 1: you'll get those minutes. I still think like you said,
Speaker 1: I think Cruzi will get those get that time or
Speaker 1: West Matthews maybe a lot more shrewder maybe, but he
Speaker 1: has the talent, Like like the ceiling raises if he's better,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like it's there's a lower
Speaker 1: floor there because of his defense on off wall. But
Speaker 1: I just think he had a really good game. It
Speaker 1: looked like that way his office shoulders like him playing
Speaker 1: next to Lebron was so cool because he doesn't have
Speaker 1: to like bring it up have the possession of the
Speaker 1: full time. He can kind of run off, runoff actions
Speaker 1: and attack attack already compromised defense exactly. That's the key.
Speaker 1: The when the defense has already compromised, a talented player
Speaker 1: can make you pay. Like this is always the biggest
Speaker 1: problem with you know, Lebron's Calves teams is he would
Speaker 1: compromise the defense, but if it wasn't an open three,
Speaker 1: they just couldn't beat you in any sort of other action.
Speaker 1: And you know what makes k CP so good is
Speaker 1: how good he is not just a shooting but at
Speaker 1: attacking the closeouts to get to the rim. And having
Speaker 1: another guy like that like th HD on the floor,
Speaker 1: it could work. And that's my big key there is
Speaker 1: I'm just I think this could work and it definitely
Speaker 1: bodes well for the future and what th h T
Speaker 1: looks like with an older Lebron and with you know,
Speaker 1: a d in the heart of his prime as just
Speaker 1: like this bona fide third option, who can you know,
Speaker 1: go on Dennis Shrewder esque spurts as a score but
Speaker 1: then kind of default into an off ball weapon and
Speaker 1: then just be a dominant defensive player. And I you know,
Speaker 1: he's been a roller coaster for me this year personally,
Speaker 1: just you know, thinking about what his potential is and
Speaker 1: how he kind of fits into the timeline of this team.
Speaker 1: But he's so aheaded, he's so aheaded schedule from all
Speaker 1: of these quality reps that, like, I think there's really
Speaker 1: good reason to be optimistic that he can actually be
Speaker 1: an impactful playoff player at some point in this Lebron
Speaker 1: in a D experience, which is pretty exciting. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: it looks like they trust him right Like he closed
Speaker 1: the game tonight, he was the first sub off the
Speaker 1: bench as well. Um, they trust him to play. And
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna get playoff minutes. Not like in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, every possession is it matters a lot more
Speaker 1: so you can't have these like defensive lapses. And I
Speaker 1: think Vogel will will press the right buttons there. But
Speaker 1: he's definitely gonna play and his talent is there for sure,
Speaker 1: and it looks like he's he's like I said, he's
Speaker 1: growing up every single game. I think those those reps
Speaker 1: really did like are going to pay dividends here, like
Speaker 1: him be able to just be able to create, be
Speaker 1: able to make mistakes right. Usually you don't get that
Speaker 1: on a championship team. You don't get guys who are
Speaker 1: twenty who are able to kind of play through mistakes,
Speaker 1: but just because of injuries and you know, bad luck
Speaker 1: with bad luck with injuries. He's he was able to
Speaker 1: do that and really build reps that he wasn't able
Speaker 1: to do last year. You got a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: in the playoffs last year as well. But this year
Speaker 1: it feels like a really nice, uh nice year for him,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna be He's gonna be a
Speaker 1: big time rotation guy in the playoffs if I I agree.
Speaker 1: If not this year, then in the future. Um, did
Speaker 1: you have anything else you wanted to touch on before
Speaker 1: we get some guests up here? I? Uh no, I
Speaker 1: think that was all I had here. So, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you want to get your request in, we'll bring some
Speaker 1: people up and uh yeah, we'll get this coming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll go for about we'll go for about thirty minutes. Guys,
Speaker 1: go to as many as we can get to. All right,
Speaker 1: let's start with I think Joe, Joe, what's going on, man, Hey, Joe,
Speaker 1: can hear its? Tho? Hey, what's going on? Guys? Hey?
Speaker 1: I did not get to see the game. Um, I
Speaker 1: followed on Twitter. I had a question about Drummond and
Speaker 1: handling some of uh, Lebron's passes seemed like he wasn't
Speaker 1: really ready for them. Did you see any frustration from
Speaker 1: Lebron or just kinda know that it's gonna take some
Speaker 1: time for those two to jail, thank y'all. Man, I
Speaker 1: thought it more or less looked the same as uh
Speaker 1: as it did with other players, in the sense that
Speaker 1: you know, when there's a lot of traffic around, if
Speaker 1: it's if it doesn't hit him squarely, and uh in
Speaker 1: the hands, he has trouble handling things. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like, I'm not gonna be too
Speaker 1: hyper critical of Lebron and a d pick and roll
Speaker 1: action this early, because you know the Drummond test to
Speaker 1: learn you know when when to expect it from Lebron,
Speaker 1: which is literally always and understand that that that he
Speaker 1: has to stay ready. And that's some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that Shrewder missed, some of the stuff that Crusoe and
Speaker 1: THHD missed. Lebron is not gonna miss when things break
Speaker 1: open and and his anticipation will have to all he'll
Speaker 1: always have to be anticipating that kind of stuff. So
Speaker 1: I I I didn't think. I didn't necessarily notice anything
Speaker 1: problematic about that today, and I I don't think it's
Speaker 1: I don't think we have enough data yet to necessarily
Speaker 1: judge that. Yeah, that's only it's only drum in second
Speaker 1: game right with Lebron. I think today he'll get used
Speaker 1: to it, um, and but he'll get used to playing
Speaker 1: with Lebron eventually. There were some places where I don't
Speaker 1: think he was expecting the ball at all. Right, Lebron
Speaker 1: dropped it to him. He's like when you made that past.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he'll get used to playing with him. And
Speaker 1: again there's like not that much space as Lebron is
Speaker 1: really threading the needle Drummond catches. They were like two
Speaker 1: people around and that's just not what he's good at
Speaker 1: right finishing there. So the buff of them will learn
Speaker 1: each other's games. Thank you, Joy, I appreciate it. Thanks,
Speaker 1: you appreciate you. Man. Let's see my guy Tom, Tom,
Speaker 1: what's up man, what's up? Fellas? Thanks for having me?
Speaker 1: How are you doing today? Always pleasure. Guys, I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask y'all what you thought about Shrewder today definitely
Speaker 1: didn't have the legs missing short, But we got maybe
Speaker 1: two games max for the real playoffs start, and this
Speaker 1: dude just came back from COVID. Maybe we maybe already
Speaker 1: had questions about whether he could defend in the playoffs
Speaker 1: to begin with. So I'm just curious about, like, do
Speaker 1: you think they might, you know, mess around with his rotation,
Speaker 1: you know, like kind of trim those minutes. What's the
Speaker 1: Sugger perspective in your guys minds appreciate Joe. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, I think that Dennis, if he was going
Speaker 1: to come off the bench in any capacity, it would
Speaker 1: have been in a game like today, you know, under
Speaker 1: the circumstances. I think there's some sort of uh spoken
Speaker 1: agreement between him and the coaching staff that he expects
Speaker 1: to start. I think that's part of their pursuit of
Speaker 1: him in free agency and just part of of kind
Speaker 1: of his ego, which is fine, Like I get it,
Speaker 1: he's a pro, he's very good basketball player. He should
Speaker 1: have an ego as far as defensively. The only thing
Speaker 1: that really concerns me with him is teams like the Clippers,
Speaker 1: teams that will attack and switches and shoot over the top,
Speaker 1: because the Lakers are good at forcing you to take
Speaker 1: difficult shots. But you know, guys like Caruso, guys like
Speaker 1: Shuder in particular against bigger scoring wings, I have a
Speaker 1: vulnerability there. But I think the Lakers have an audible
Speaker 1: to go away from him in that case by going
Speaker 1: with lineups with more wet sin Kuzma and just more
Speaker 1: size on the wing where they can where they can
Speaker 1: make them shoot over a little bit more difficult of
Speaker 1: a contest. But you know, I thought he had some
Speaker 1: sloppiness today, Like you said, he was short on those jumpers.
Speaker 1: I think he has to be super aggressive on those threes.
Speaker 1: That's so important for the Lakers in their spacing. But
Speaker 1: for me personally, he's been so good this year. He
Speaker 1: has he's he's built up so much equity with me
Speaker 1: personally that like, I can go with the bumps as
Speaker 1: he gets back into shape from this COVID thing and
Speaker 1: even just the general inconvenience that this COVID thing was
Speaker 1: for the team. He's just been so good this year
Speaker 1: that I think he's earned earned a reprieve from all
Speaker 1: of us, and I'm I'm kind of I I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in what he brings to the team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt like he was moving pretty well. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you if he found that way as well. Talk.
Speaker 1: I thought he was looked. He looked like he moved well.
Speaker 1: He just his shots were kind of short. Um he
Speaker 1: had for aces. I expected like turnovers tonight, Like he
Speaker 1: was not going to be in a rhythm first game back,
Speaker 1: but I thought he'd like really made an impact. Still,
Speaker 1: his defense is gonna be there. I don't I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna start most of the game, but I still
Speaker 1: think they'll probably close maybe with Crusoe and a few matchups.
Speaker 1: If that happens, like they'll just pick a different closing
Speaker 1: line up. I feel like he's gonna start most of
Speaker 1: the games on the playoffs. Did you see that as well, Tom,
Speaker 1: did you feel like it was at least moving well?
Speaker 1: I don't like, uh impacts of that for him? It
Speaker 1: was okay. It was probably better than I was expecting.
Speaker 1: I guess like some of that like really fast first step,
Speaker 1: get to the rim, stuff, like just the big energy question,
Speaker 1: you know, not just having COVID, but like not playing
Speaker 1: in two weeks, you know, but I I I'm just
Speaker 1: curious because it wasn't the most perfect fit with Shooter
Speaker 1: bron A D. That starting lineup with Kassol was good
Speaker 1: all year, right, it's good. But I'm just curious about
Speaker 1: kind of with the circumstance with the Lakers starting Crusoe
Speaker 1: during them putting it together with a D looking good
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, and Crusoe actually starting to play
Speaker 1: make and like make threes, you know, contribute on offense
Speaker 1: a little more. I'm just curious, like, maybe not start Crusoe,
Speaker 1: but if we see a quicker hook which from from shooters.
Speaker 1: So appreciate the inside Doug, guys, thanks to appreciate you see.
Speaker 1: But Celio, are you there? Hey, how are you doing? Republic? Awesome? Man,
Speaker 1: that's far one of my honeymoon. Yeah, I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about I heard about the can today. But what do
Speaker 1: you think about this toast to my ship for the
Speaker 1: Lakers in the first round? Gets or sons? So, I
Speaker 1: mean they are now. Roger and I've talked about this
Speaker 1: in the past. I tend to think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: a better matchup for the Suns in terms of an
Speaker 1: easier first round series. But I think that if you're
Speaker 1: ranking Western Conference upon it's that the team that they
Speaker 1: need to be most worried about as the Clippers, So
Speaker 1: anybody other than them, I think is the better option.
Speaker 1: Um The thing with Phoenix is, as we learned, they
Speaker 1: literally cannot guard Anthony Davis, So that just completely changes
Speaker 1: the geometry of the entire series, even without Lebron and
Speaker 1: and uh and Also, the Lakers are just so gifted
Speaker 1: at defending guards. It's the strength of their team, um
Speaker 1: and and that's basically what Phoenix leans on for the
Speaker 1: most part, and their primary isolation player, Devin Booker, is
Speaker 1: of a more manageable size for the Laker guards to
Speaker 1: deal with and switches, so at least you know he's
Speaker 1: not going to be getting easy, easy, easy shots based
Speaker 1: on his physical tools, you know. I just I just
Speaker 1: think that that matchup makes more sense for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But what's crazy is with with there's so many different
Speaker 1: ways this could break out. The Lakers could play It
Speaker 1: looks like they could play Denver in the first round.
Speaker 1: They could play the Sons in the first round, like,
Speaker 1: it looks like it could be anything at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like it's not gonna be the Clippers though,
Speaker 1: right with the Clippers losing yesterday throwing the throwing that
Speaker 1: game against Houston, so um, it looks like what if
Speaker 1: Denver throws tomorrow? Though, if Denver throws tomorrow against Portland, oh,
Speaker 1: and then they'd still be in the then we'll be
Speaker 1: in the plane. You're right, Yeah, So the Clippers effectively
Speaker 1: just does no matter what exactly. So we'll probably most
Speaker 1: likely play Denver or Phoenix. And to me, like, I
Speaker 1: think Phoenix is just we touched on it a lot.
Speaker 1: I think that's an awesome matchup for US. I feel
Speaker 1: like we have the best guard kind of defenders in
Speaker 1: the league and those two that team kind of lives
Speaker 1: off its guards, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and then they
Speaker 1: have no matchup for Anthony Davis, let alone Lebron James
Speaker 1: whatever he's gonna do due to them as well. I
Speaker 1: think mckel bridges is a really good defender, but again,
Speaker 1: very little playoff experience, right for Phoenix, like he would
Speaker 1: get bullied by physical That's a that's a good team
Speaker 1: to kind of go against. I'm higher on Utah, I
Speaker 1: think than a lot of people are. I think they're
Speaker 1: the second toughest behind the Clippers. Um, so to avoid
Speaker 1: Demosol would be good. So I think they'll be Phoenix
Speaker 1: would be a good matchup. Denver would probably be the
Speaker 1: one that we both want the most right out of that,
Speaker 1: out of that, out of all those teams, and it
Speaker 1: looks like they might play them at Denver Denver doesn't
Speaker 1: throw the game tomorrow against Portland. Lucy, thank you, man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. A guy merged, what's going on? Merge,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Guys? Um, how you're doing today? Good?
Speaker 1: Well man? Good? Um. I had a couple of questions.
Speaker 1: I actually had a comment about the shrewter thing that
Speaker 1: Tom brought up, but it did seem Mike, he did
Speaker 1: have a bit quicker of a hook. Uh. She was
Speaker 1: coming in around the six and a half seven minute
Speaker 1: murder um not. I think shooter normally comes down a
Speaker 1: little later in the first of the third quarter. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think she was playing the Cruiso role today
Speaker 1: since they're arresting Cruso, So I do think Cruiso we'll
Speaker 1: get a little more minutes with those starters, just because
Speaker 1: he didn't look really good in that role, and he
Speaker 1: just historically is very good with Lebron and a d um.
Speaker 1: The second thing is going away from the game with
Speaker 1: Kobe being inducted today in the Hall of Fame. Uh,
Speaker 1: what is your guys favorite Coby moments? Um? Maybe not
Speaker 1: one that like a lot of people talk about, but
Speaker 1: maybe a little more underrated Kobe moment. Do you wanna
Speaker 1: go first? Go ahead? Okay, Well, I guess I can
Speaker 1: start with the start with the Kobe moment. I guess, uh,
Speaker 1: which is awesome shout out to Kobe getting inducted into
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. I think that's that's awesome. We'll
Speaker 1: be able to watch it. I think it's out around
Speaker 1: two thirty is the ceremony, So it would be nice
Speaker 1: and nice to see that. My favorite Kobe moment. It's
Speaker 1: I guess everyone knows about this one, but I guess
Speaker 1: it's just the game seven kind of that. I think
Speaker 1: they were up. They were he was like he wasn't
Speaker 1: able to get a shot all night, and then I
Speaker 1: was like the fourth quarter he did a right right
Speaker 1: step triple pull up jumper put us up for and
Speaker 1: I knew the game was over. Um, teenage meat was
Speaker 1: I was really excited. So I think that was I
Speaker 1: think that's my favorite code moment, how about you, Jason.
Speaker 1: So obviously I have lots of favorite Kobe moments, but
Speaker 1: my my personal favorite was his first game back after
Speaker 1: the Achilles. So, uh, if you guys remember at this
Speaker 1: point in time, like we've recently seen some guys come
Speaker 1: back from Achilles repairs and looked pretty good, So the
Speaker 1: Achilles injury has like a different vibe now, but back then,
Speaker 1: there wasn't really any example recently, and so I think
Speaker 1: everybody kind of just assumed Kobe was done. And when
Speaker 1: when he came back, and if you guys remember he
Speaker 1: was wearing that they were wearing the black short sleeve jerseys,
Speaker 1: and he drove baseline and did a reverse dunk uh
Speaker 1: uh like kind of like like double pump reverse skunk
Speaker 1: on the other side of the rim, and it was,
Speaker 1: you know, the highlight of the night. And it was
Speaker 1: all this, uh, you know, a lot of crazy excitement
Speaker 1: about it. But in that one moment, I remember thinking, like,
Speaker 1: this dude's really going to come back from his Achilles
Speaker 1: and still be Kobe, which is just crazy to even
Speaker 1: think about now. As it turned out, you know, he
Speaker 1: never really kind of materialized into anything but in that moment,
Speaker 1: like just because Kobe's Kobe, Like you just couldn't believe
Speaker 1: it that this old dude who had torn his achilles
Speaker 1: had somehow come back and was, you know, doing a
Speaker 1: double pump reverse dunk in a in an NBA game.
Speaker 1: Like it's just you couldn't even fathom it. But like
Speaker 1: you just your your brain was always open to that
Speaker 1: sort of thing because it was Kobe. Um. But you
Speaker 1: know that. I think that's just one of obviously many
Speaker 1: many moments. Yeah, I like the eighties story as well.
Speaker 1: He said, like I think Kobe disliquated his shoulder or
Speaker 1: something like that, and he still went out and played
Speaker 1: and hit like a left hand jumper or something on
Speaker 1: the next positions like the hell man, people people don't
Speaker 1: do that. So yeah, shout out, shout out Kobe going
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame. I guess merge or second
Speaker 1: you're at the point was like the th I think
Speaker 1: he said Tsu was the first sub Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I said that the Tsu was kind of playing the
Speaker 1: Crusoe role today and he came in for shooter around
Speaker 1: like the seven minute market and that's normally uh shooter
Speaker 1: normally comes out around like the five for minute market normally,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that was just a product
Speaker 1: of him coming back today or if it was sort
Speaker 1: of what we can see moving forward with you know,
Speaker 1: Crusoe coming around that seven minute mark and him playing
Speaker 1: more minutes with that starting unit. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: I feel like that was more shooters just they're they're
Speaker 1: being careful with his minutes, right, That's what I thought
Speaker 1: it was coming out really early. And also he didn't
Speaker 1: close the game either, so I thought he would have
Speaker 1: closed tonight because I thought he played well in that
Speaker 1: second half. He was really aggressive. I thought he got
Speaker 1: more comfortable. Um, his speaking role passes got better, he
Speaker 1: was finding Harold and even a D on those roles.
Speaker 1: I thought he was He looked good. So I feel
Speaker 1: like that was more just a product of him trying
Speaker 1: to get back, get his conditioning back, um, And I
Speaker 1: thought that was why. And t HD also played well,
Speaker 1: so correct to him. But I just thought that's why
Speaker 1: he came out so early. About you, J, did you
Speaker 1: see that same thing? Yeah, I agree, I don't think
Speaker 1: I don't think it was associated with a quick hook
Speaker 1: so to speak. I think it was just them managing
Speaker 1: his return from from covid M. I, like I said,
Speaker 1: the only scenario where I see him really being displaced
Speaker 1: from his normal rotation uh a minute is going to
Speaker 1: be against the team that's attacking him and switches, because
Speaker 1: everywhere else in the game he kinda fulfills his purpose.
Speaker 1: Like he's not a great spot up three point shooter,
Speaker 1: but he's gonna knock down enough of them that you
Speaker 1: have to guard him. And on the defensive end, against
Speaker 1: anybody other than a really quick or other than a
Speaker 1: really big wing, he's great. He's great at the point
Speaker 1: of attack. He's a great ball pressure player. He's a
Speaker 1: great defender to have just to make them struggle to
Speaker 1: get into their offense, maybe initiating things that you know,
Speaker 1: twelve the teen seconds instead of nineteen seconds. And there's
Speaker 1: a ton of value he brings everywhere else on the floor.
Speaker 1: And you know the other thing too, is you know
Speaker 1: Roj you've hit on this several times. You know Lebron.
Speaker 1: Uh They're gonna be a lot of teams, especially the Clippers,
Speaker 1: are gonna ball pressure Lebron all game long, uh in
Speaker 1: in in an attempt to just wear him down. And
Speaker 1: I think having that release valve of shrewder to bring
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor is so valuable, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's not as shaky as it is with a th
Speaker 1: h T or Caruso where you're worried about turnovers or
Speaker 1: then making some mistakes. Like Shooter, you can depend on
Speaker 1: to do to fulfill that role. So I still think
Speaker 1: as far as the rotation goes, he's gonna be there
Speaker 1: unless he's getting attacked by a bigger win consistently and switches,
Speaker 1: So I expect him to be, you know, in all
Speaker 1: of their key lineups. First, appreciate you appreciate image. M hmm,
Speaker 1: all right, see Pedro are you there? Yeah? What's up? Many?
Speaker 1: How are you guys doing? Let me man, I'm just
Speaker 1: anxis been looking at the standings all weekend long, So
Speaker 1: let's have we got a chance to get that six
Speaker 1: seed at least? Yeah, it's in it's in play. Um
Speaker 1: My guest, if I had to guess, would be that
Speaker 1: the Nuggets would throw that game tomorrow because that would
Speaker 1: allow them to avoid the Lakers in the first round.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken. If Denver wins tomorrow, they're effectively
Speaker 1: signing up to play the Lakers. In the first round.
Speaker 1: So I'm my guess is that Denver will, like kind
Speaker 1: of you know, subtenly tank that game tomorrow. Let Portland
Speaker 1: get six, they'll take five or four because they'd rather
Speaker 1: play Dallas, and then you'd end up with Dallas and
Speaker 1: Denver and you'd end up with the Clippers and Blazers
Speaker 1: and then the Lakers in the plan. That's my guest.
Speaker 1: But we'll see what happens. Yeah, I just I don't
Speaker 1: think Denver will we'll throw the game. I just don't
Speaker 1: feel like that's something I do. But we'll see. I
Speaker 1: guess it'd be great to avoid that play playing we
Speaker 1: already avoided. That's what we wanted, most of the fans wanted,
Speaker 1: I think, to avoid the Clippers at least until that
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals or even the second round. However, that however,
Speaker 1: that however, that goes. But yeah, we can get to
Speaker 1: get out of play and the six he played Denver.
Speaker 1: I think that's a win, and there's a chance tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't see Denver throwing the game,
Speaker 1: but but we'll see. That would be the very best
Speaker 1: case scenario. Like if you could have told us, well
Speaker 1: when Shrewder went down with COVID, and when Lebron was
Speaker 1: like never mind, I'm not back yet, and when a
Speaker 1: d was looking like a shell of himself, which was
Speaker 1: the low point of the Laker season. You know, a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, if you would have told us,
Speaker 1: then don't worry, You'll be playing Dallas or Denver in
Speaker 1: the first round six seed, no playing blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Every Laker fan would have signed up for that a heartbeat,
Speaker 1: because it was looking the leak at that point. So
Speaker 1: I would say that, uh, if if Denver wins tomorrow,
Speaker 1: that would be your best case scenario for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Can I find s about Denver? Just that, Like, if
Speaker 1: I'm Denver, and tell me if I'm crazy, right, I
Speaker 1: don't expect to win the title this year based on
Speaker 1: for our injuries. I say, win the game, play the
Speaker 1: Lakers and get xp against them, see him again, fight
Speaker 1: him again, like let's go. I know that's crazy, maybe,
Speaker 1: but like, is it so crazy just throwing it out there? No?
Speaker 1: I like it. And then if you're gonna lose, you'd
Speaker 1: rather lose to like the Lakers than draw, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: then you're like too. It was Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: well like we might have lost with Jamal, you know,
Speaker 1: like that you could look at it different. For sure.
Speaker 1: I saw like Terry Stotts is I think the Portland coach, Um,
Speaker 1: he had this quote, and I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of other kind of coaches probably believe the sentiments like
Speaker 1: you're kind of messing with, um the basketball gods as
Speaker 1: they sail on like room in podcast or just with
Speaker 1: Karmen all those things kind of like losing a game
Speaker 1: to avoid a team, right, you're just kind of just
Speaker 1: messing with like bad do do bad energy. I feel
Speaker 1: like like I just feel like most teams, um, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't see them throwing the game like the Clippers
Speaker 1: did yesterday. So I just don't. I just don't see
Speaker 1: that happening. It could be you can throw a game
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. Yeah, that's like you can
Speaker 1: throw a game, like the Lakers throw games just when
Speaker 1: they don't when they don't, I'm not deliberately throw games,
Speaker 1: but there are games when they come out and they're
Speaker 1: just like like we're not gonna play tonight, like like
Speaker 1: the Clippers game like last week. I mean that it
Speaker 1: makes sense just deliberately like avoiding a I'm a playoff opponent.
Speaker 1: I guess feels a little different, right, Like you're kind
Speaker 1: of just choosing who you'd rather kind of play in
Speaker 1: that situation. I just think it's a little different there.
Speaker 1: I don't see them throwing the game. But maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: Maybe they just sit your kids M p J tomorrow
Speaker 1: and just they go crazy. Let me simplify it here,
Speaker 1: because I agree with you that it's it's playing with
Speaker 1: the basketball gods. I agree with you. Yeah, let's just
Speaker 1: put it this way. I think Denver without Murray is
Speaker 1: a better team in Portland's. But I think Portland's gonna
Speaker 1: win tomorrow, no other details. That's what I expect that
Speaker 1: could happen. Yeah, yeah, that's fair because I mean i'd
Speaker 1: be very touch tough matchup for them anyway because about Murray.
Speaker 1: M hmm, exactly. Yeah, joke, it goes off, you know,
Speaker 1: m VP mode or something. But very much, thank you, Pedro,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Let's see. I think, yeah, well it's quite
Speaker 1: on many. Oh, how's it going? Y and man um,
Speaker 1: I was just reflecting on like the crazy week Lakers
Speaker 1: have had. Like I remember the moment, you know, like
Speaker 1: getting the Clippers game when a d turned his ankle
Speaker 1: on that board, and like just the lowness that made
Speaker 1: me feel like I I at that moment, I just
Speaker 1: didn't think, you know, we could repeat. Like I've been
Speaker 1: watching Lebron, Like I'm I'm mainly just a Lebron James fan,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, but like I've been watching him since,
Speaker 1: like you know, and like just like every most of
Speaker 1: the seasons he has besides last year, like there's always
Speaker 1: a low point in the regular season, just like remind myself,
Speaker 1: like they always he always finds a way to come
Speaker 1: back from that, you know, and like make it to
Speaker 1: the finals unless he's injured. So like, especially after watching
Speaker 1: performance today, the way he flew on that alley, Like
Speaker 1: I'm pretty confident about the playoffs, you know, Like I
Speaker 1: think as long as we're no no injuries happen until then,
Speaker 1: I think I think we can basically book a final strip.
Speaker 1: Like I know that sounds cocky, but like the Clippers
Speaker 1: scared me a little bit, but like, as long as
Speaker 1: we're good, I think we beat everybody. So I just
Speaker 1: like I know it's kind of ultra positive, but it's
Speaker 1: just like kind of I'm feeling up here today it's
Speaker 1: good to see the Lakers line up fully healthy well
Speaker 1: for starters. We uh, we value your optimism. This is
Speaker 1: this has been a season where optimism has been needed. UM.
Speaker 1: I do think it's very important to delineate between a
Speaker 1: normal Lebron apathetic regular season in this one because, to
Speaker 1: be frank like, we've never seen in his career this
Speaker 1: type of circumstance. Um. That doesn't mean I'm not optimistic
Speaker 1: because I think I think, like Roger and I have
Speaker 1: talked about a lot on this podcast, we aren't as
Speaker 1: concerned about his athleticism as we are with a D,
Speaker 1: and a D looks so great physically and Lebron looks
Speaker 1: good enough physically that I think there is a reason
Speaker 1: to be optimistic. UM. I just don't think this was apathy.
Speaker 1: This was this was Lebron the dude who is probably
Speaker 1: the best player in the world, like suffered a contact
Speaker 1: ankle injury that held him out for what was the
Speaker 1: out of thirty games. So this was this was a
Speaker 1: real significant issue. UM, and I think it's it appears
Speaker 1: to be something that they can survive. I would say
Speaker 1: that I'm probably less optimistic than you. UM. I think
Speaker 1: I think that I think that they're in for a war,
Speaker 1: uh and against the Clippers, and I think that, uh
Speaker 1: that they'll probably get pushed a little bit in one
Speaker 1: of these early rounds when they're sloppy and a little
Speaker 1: bit out of shape and lacking continuity. Um, But I
Speaker 1: do I do think that I think that we're I
Speaker 1: think this play our Friends gonna look very different than
Speaker 1: last year. In my opinion. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of long series, that's my guess. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I could see this, I could see the same thing. Um,
Speaker 1: he he looked good tonight, but like I thought he
Speaker 1: was moving. Well. This is why I want to get
Speaker 1: out of the playing game though, because I just don't
Speaker 1: want Lebron to have to like just go crazy in
Speaker 1: one game. Right you have to ramp it all up
Speaker 1: right away, get into a series, be able to like
Speaker 1: you know, set down kind of read a team, um
Speaker 1: and attack him the way he wants to. I mean,
Speaker 1: he loses game ones to get losing game once a lot,
Speaker 1: but but still like I just like that he's able
Speaker 1: to go into a go into a team and kind
Speaker 1: of play them instead of have to go through this
Speaker 1: this playing kind of stuff. So if you can go
Speaker 1: through that get away from the Clippers, and the West
Speaker 1: is good. Man, there's no bad teams in the West,
Speaker 1: like Denver being I say this a lot, Denver being
Speaker 1: the prize of the West kind of shows how good
Speaker 1: the West is. Right, the team is still freaking good.
Speaker 1: MPJ is really good. Yo Kich is the m v
Speaker 1: P most likely, Like that's a really freaking good team
Speaker 1: and that's a team where we're aiming for to play. Like,
Speaker 1: just think about that in terms of the West, the
Speaker 1: top of the West. Right, you can't a Portland or
Speaker 1: any of those teams. But still that makes it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough, tough, tough road. But Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D are healthy. Like, my only thing is with the
Speaker 1: chemistry thing shrewder A D and Lebron played there twenty
Speaker 1: fifth game tonight, which against just with nothing in a
Speaker 1: full season. That's not only concern. But those two are healthy.
Speaker 1: You should be able to get out those rounds. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's the longer series a D Lebron ramping up. Maybe
Speaker 1: those series are longer, but if they can just be
Speaker 1: in rhythm going to like the Clipper series, um, I
Speaker 1: think I'll feel fine. I think You're right. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be a hot cake walk to the finals.
Speaker 1: Though this is a really good league. Forget West is
Speaker 1: a good league this year is a lot of really
Speaker 1: good teams on both sides of the conference. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I was a little disrespectful with how confident
Speaker 1: I was, Like I definitely respect like the Nuggets a lot.
Speaker 1: Like I just like, you know, the Murray loss is
Speaker 1: obviously that's like I would maybe have them as the
Speaker 1: favorites in the West, like with US if Murray didn't
Speaker 1: get hurt, but like when he got hurt, I just
Speaker 1: kind of wrote them off. And like, I guess that's
Speaker 1: kind of maybe a bit of a mistake because Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. Is like ascended in that time. But UM,
Speaker 1: as long as I think we need to play the
Speaker 1: Clippers in the UM Conference finals, which is why tomorrow
Speaker 1: will be an interesting interesting thing, like to see if
Speaker 1: UM they tank the thunder game. I guess it'll be
Speaker 1: pretty hard to do. But you know, they did loose
Speaker 1: to the Rockets, so maybe if they ended up in
Speaker 1: that fourth spot, which I think they will try to do,
Speaker 1: then we don't play them. If we get the seven
Speaker 1: UM until the conference finals. So you know, obviously tomorrow
Speaker 1: is a big up locations on that and that will
Speaker 1: be pretty interesting to see. But yeah, I guess they
Speaker 1: shouldn't be so disrespectful. I think I think if we
Speaker 1: play the Clippers it will go like seven games. I
Speaker 1: just think, you know, I trust in Lebron Nadi to
Speaker 1: pull that out. Have you have good reason to that.
Speaker 1: He's exactly the last ten times. So it's not exactly
Speaker 1: it's exactly every every playoff he's been in, you know,
Speaker 1: less decade went to the finals. So an interesting wrinkle
Speaker 1: will be road games in Denver to start the postseason
Speaker 1: off of you know, right, Lebron not quite being in
Speaker 1: shape and Shrewder not quite being ape. Again. I like
Speaker 1: the matchups in that series, so I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: would do fine. But that's an interesting thing to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. Is like falling into a hole against
Speaker 1: Denver because you're out of shape playing at elevation against
Speaker 1: a team that's in really good shape and in a
Speaker 1: really good rhythm. But I still like their chances. They're
Speaker 1: Another thing that's really nice about avoiding the play in
Speaker 1: is the playing tournament runs all week. It's Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 1: which means that I'm assuming the first round isn't going
Speaker 1: to start until Saturday, possibly Sunday. Uh for the Lakers
Speaker 1: with with what that means is that you know, by
Speaker 1: by winning tomorrow, and if Denver manages to beat Portland's,
Speaker 1: you buy lebron in another five days to rest that ankle,
Speaker 1: and you buy Anthony Davis five days to rest that
Speaker 1: growing and you buy Dennis Shrewder five days to get
Speaker 1: his lungs back and work on his his uh, getting
Speaker 1: his polish back, and and it just it just there's
Speaker 1: a whole list of benefits that come from that. Not
Speaker 1: to mention they would, I believe, in that timeline, face
Speaker 1: the Clippers in the conference finals. Yep, and we can practice, right,
Speaker 1: they get some practices in exactly that one's practice this year.
Speaker 1: So get some practices in, get that week off, get
Speaker 1: out of that play, and don't play the Clippers. I
Speaker 1: think that's a win. We would have took that, Like
Speaker 1: I said, all all day long. Yeah, I think we're
Speaker 1: all Nuggets fans tomorrow for sure. So hopefully Kid goes off.
Speaker 1: We'll see though, Dad, same don't matter, That don't matter,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree, but I think there's something with
Speaker 1: Jason saying about elevation, especially for Shrewder, like coming off
Speaker 1: COVID like you Obviously, I'm very confident Shuder. I'm very
Speaker 1: hot on Shrewder. But he did look a little um,
Speaker 1: you know, out of shape today, so hopefully hopefully he
Speaker 1: can get that week to rest. But I I do
Speaker 1: agree with Tom. Also, they don't matter like see Sons
Speaker 1: Lakers in five six maybe you know, so we'll see.
Speaker 1: So Jovan reported the dentists after the game while y'all
Speaker 1: were on here said he did not have COVID, So okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was he out fourteen days
Speaker 1: then no idea crazy gez. So that would be interesting
Speaker 1: to see because I I do I do understand that
Speaker 1: exposure changes your timeline based on the type of exposure.
Speaker 1: So it's possible that his health and Safety protocol timeline
Speaker 1: was extended because he had like a great deal of exposure.
Speaker 1: Scott it or something, yeah, something something along those lines.
Speaker 1: But I mean, who knows this stuff. They've all been
Speaker 1: so secretive about it the whole time, and Shrewder didn't
Speaker 1: do himself any favors with that. Germany interview No, he
Speaker 1: did that. Oh, I missed the Germany interview. I saw him.
Speaker 1: I saw him on Grant that thought a while we
Speaker 1: were playing the Clippers. So that was that was pretty funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then it helped be there. I guess it didn't. It
Speaker 1: definitely didn't. He definitely doesn't know like he definitely doesn't
Speaker 1: do the right thing always. But you know, I love
Speaker 1: him as a player though, I really do. Why should
Speaker 1: I appreciate you little? Appreciate you, guys. I love listening
Speaker 1: to the space after the games. You guys, do you
Speaker 1: guys have a great one? Thank you? All right, let's
Speaker 1: see I think we have two more here, George. What's
Speaker 1: going on? Man? Can you guys hear me? What's up? Guys?
Speaker 1: Good to be back. I missed Tuesday, Spaces, but I
Speaker 1: want to talk about a few things. I want to
Speaker 1: get to the Clippers thing last, because I think they're
Speaker 1: playing with fire with what they did. But with the
Speaker 1: the offensive droughts. Do you think that's concerning because we've
Speaker 1: had it with Lebron and a d now obviously without them,
Speaker 1: but I felt like that was justified or is that
Speaker 1: just the lack of spacing, which will probably figure itself
Speaker 1: out come postseason. I literally just think it's the lack
Speaker 1: of spacing. I think, and Roger and I talked about
Speaker 1: this extensively at the beginning of the podcast. You can
Speaker 1: see the more detailed version of that when we released
Speaker 1: the pod. But to make a long story shortly, you
Speaker 1: can get away with your a minute the five when
Speaker 1: you're playing a Pacers defense that's missing some of their
Speaker 1: guys that's not really engaged on that end. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, when they kind of started
Speaker 1: paying attention to detail and taking away the easy stuff,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, your primary decision maker, Lebron is
Speaker 1: settling for jumpers because there's just nothing there. And I
Speaker 1: think I think at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: Lakers will find when they get into the later rounds
Speaker 1: against the team like the Clippers or against the team
Speaker 1: you know, like Utah Phoenix, that they're going to actually
Speaker 1: really have to uh go away from Drummond at the
Speaker 1: five just for the sake of of stopping the stagnation
Speaker 1: in their offense. Oh yeah, um, I agree with that.
Speaker 1: I was gonna I was gonna tweet out actually during
Speaker 1: the game, like this is the first game with no
Speaker 1: scoring drought you know, spectrum and then like in the
Speaker 1: last three minutes they just decided not to score. They
Speaker 1: really bogged down. No ball movement, spacing was killed and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So I'm not really worried about it again,
Speaker 1: Like I don't worry about the offense of a Lebron
Speaker 1: in a D S team in my opinion, it's just
Speaker 1: getting them, getting them going. Um. I think those droughts
Speaker 1: will get even less as we get Lebron healthier, Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder back in the lineup. Are just our offensive creators back, right,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like a lot of those droughts were
Speaker 1: because we just had no shot creation on the floor.
Speaker 1: We just we haven't given the ball thd the whole time.
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso wearing those actions. That's where a lot of
Speaker 1: the droughts we're kind of coming from. Um. I just
Speaker 1: feel like now with the with all our ball handlers
Speaker 1: kind of back all at once, which is funny all
Speaker 1: of them coming back at once, But with them back,
Speaker 1: I feel like the droughts will be will be a
Speaker 1: little bit less as as we go on here that
Speaker 1: they should get good looks. They have enough shooters to
Speaker 1: make to make shots. We'll just we'll see if it
Speaker 1: if it happens in the playoffs, but I just don't
Speaker 1: think it will. And this tonight was a nice offensive
Speaker 1: game to see. I have all have the whole team
Speaker 1: pretty much going and and yeah, like it sucks that
Speaker 1: it happened at the most important time of the game. Uh,
Speaker 1: it would have been nice to just get like a
Speaker 1: little fifteen point win. But nothing, nothing comes easy here.
Speaker 1: It's important to remember that the defense slipped in that
Speaker 1: moment as well. A lot of times over the last
Speaker 1: two years the Lakers have had games like that where
Speaker 1: they stagnated at the end and in a most blew
Speaker 1: a lead, and a lot of the focuses on the offense.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, we as we've discussed with
Speaker 1: the spacing, that's part of it. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times those leads are shrinking in large part because the
Speaker 1: Lakers have completely mailed in the defensive end. And you
Speaker 1: can get away with a lot offensively, just as the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it's been their identity. You can get away with a
Speaker 1: lot offensively if you're doing your job on the other end,
Speaker 1: and and that's usually where it slips. So but it's
Speaker 1: almost uniquely against opponents they don't respect, which wildly enough
Speaker 1: has happened to the Lakers even in the postseason. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, look at Game five of the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: or you know the game three, like Game three against Denver,
Speaker 1: like this is all part of of their their identity.
Speaker 1: They you know, they kind of click flick that switch
Speaker 1: on and off. Um. But the good news is is
Speaker 1: they are number one in defense, so they tend to
Speaker 1: leave it on more than they leave it off. So
Speaker 1: you could you could be worse. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: felt like the offense is really good through three quarters
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, Bromenade are trying to
Speaker 1: do pick and rolls. I called it euroball a little
Speaker 1: bit because every time they came down they did it
Speaker 1: and there was no movement, and Drummond was always in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot and it was just like the same thing,
Speaker 1: a turnover, a bad shot. But uh, I'm not as
Speaker 1: concerned there. It'll it'll solve solve itself out, like you said.
Speaker 1: But with the Clippers, now, I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't want to speak as like a
Speaker 1: Clipper fan, but I felt like if they thought their
Speaker 1: best chance to beat us was in the first round
Speaker 1: if we were compromised, and then after that, I feel
Speaker 1: like they could have made a deep run because I
Speaker 1: feel like their only threat is US, and then they
Speaker 1: tanked the game out and now they won't see US
Speaker 1: until second or conference final. So I felt it was weird.
Speaker 1: I thought their best chance to beat US was the
Speaker 1: first round. So I'm I'll take it. I'm not mad
Speaker 1: with it. I just felt it was weird. The tricky
Speaker 1: thing there's Kauai is a healthy So I used to
Speaker 1: think the same thing, Like if I was the Clippers,
Speaker 1: I don't want to see the Lakers early. But they're
Speaker 1: dealing with their own issues of roster flux um, so
Speaker 1: I think that's what they're worried about, right, And then
Speaker 1: that's a little point on that going to US going drought.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that. Also. I think they
Speaker 1: were trying to run the clock out, right, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, I think they were just trying to run
Speaker 1: the clock out um with that lead, and that kind
Speaker 1: of led to those those bad shots. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: with the Clippers, there's a lot of pressure on them
Speaker 1: this season, right, Like they can't go out the first round,
Speaker 1: like they just they can't, like that's that's that's like
Speaker 1: an apocalyptic for them. So I think they would have
Speaker 1: to try to get as far as they can at
Speaker 1: least the Western Commence finals for them, So I kind
Speaker 1: of I guess I kind of understand it. I just
Speaker 1: don't like it in terms of, like, you know, respecting
Speaker 1: the basketball gods and all that stuff. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the good reason for them to
Speaker 1: kind of avoid us. They obviously feel I guess they
Speaker 1: would feel the same way where they're kind of big
Speaker 1: matchup and yeah they can't go out in the first
Speaker 1: round or something like that. That's just that can't happen
Speaker 1: for them. So I kind of I understand it from
Speaker 1: like a logical logical to you. I feel like the
Speaker 1: second least team they would want to see is Dallas Again.
Speaker 1: I know Luca was kind of punking him last year.
Speaker 1: I know it went six, but it it'd be interesting.
Speaker 1: Their best matchup is definitely Portland's. I feel like that
Speaker 1: would be a quick series, but I found it interesting.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll have to see Yep, this is going
Speaker 1: to be the most intriguing playoff that will have in
Speaker 1: a long time. Yeah, A lot of good teams, all right,
Speaker 1: Thank you guys once again. Thank yeah, no bad teams
Speaker 1: in the West. Let's see, I think we have one
Speaker 1: more left, all right, let's do it one more and
Speaker 1: what's fun on man? Hey, just one quick thing. I
Speaker 1: had a question about you guys talking about rotations earlier.
Speaker 1: Do you guys not find it weird that Ben McLamore
Speaker 1: doesn't play like the majority of like of his minutes
Speaker 1: without like he plays them without Lebron. I found that
Speaker 1: very interesting with Bobil man, That's something I've been complaining
Speaker 1: about NonStop. It drives me nuts. Like it's like the
Speaker 1: dude has a super specific skill that has always melded
Speaker 1: really well with Lebron, and they just don't take advantage
Speaker 1: of it. Um. Instead, you're playing him in a situation
Speaker 1: where he's not getting the same high quality looks that
Speaker 1: he would get otherwise. And uh and and it helps
Speaker 1: because he's a little bit of a space case defensively,
Speaker 1: it helps to have like a really good communicating defender
Speaker 1: behind him to help him be in the right spots.
Speaker 1: And that's another part where you know having Lebron would help. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with that. Um. I feel like, again he's
Speaker 1: a specialist, like he's getting a lot of minutes right now. Still,
Speaker 1: I feel like he's game more than he'll get in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I think more of that will go because
Speaker 1: Vogel he's gonna go with defense, right I think he's
Speaker 1: a defensive coach when when he's when he gets the
Speaker 1: choice to big offense versus defense, and he'll pick defense
Speaker 1: pretty much every time. So I feel like in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: Maltimore will be more uh specified, and I think he'll
Speaker 1: get more minutes next to Lebron. He played a lot
Speaker 1: with that, he's playing a lot with like th ht
Speaker 1: and even shorter tonight. Um and and like you said, Jason,
Speaker 1: he wasn't as aggressive as usually is for some reason. Um.
Speaker 1: But but we'll see hopefully he gets more next to
Speaker 1: more minutes next to Lebron in the in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: where will be more specialized role. In my opinion, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just frustrating, but I just wanted to ask about it,
Speaker 1: see if you guys had any if you guys thought differently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it gets to the chess match of a playoff series,
Speaker 1: you are you know, the coaches are obsessing over film.
Speaker 1: You know they've got you know, let's say they they're
Speaker 1: you know, game three just happened, and they're you know,
Speaker 1: you're down, you know, two games to one, or you're
Speaker 1: up two games to one, but you just lost the game,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at what's going on, what's what's hurting you.
Speaker 1: And when they start to see blatant signs of spacing
Speaker 1: problems from a th HT or let's say Carusoe goes cold, like,
Speaker 1: that's when you're gonna see them try to shoehorn some
Speaker 1: mc lemore minutes in there. And then also just look
Speaker 1: at Lebron's minutes, man, Like I think he played low
Speaker 1: thirties today. Um let's see just real quick, but chances
Speaker 1: are he's gonna be up closer to forty in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Lebron played twenty eight minutes today. Like it's hard to
Speaker 1: match up mcamore minutes with Lebron when he's playing half
Speaker 1: the game. Um so I think I think in general,
Speaker 1: in the postseason, when Lebron's playing forty minutes, I bet
Speaker 1: you McLamore's minutes will almost almost exclusively mirror Lebron. YEP, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: we hope, I hope appreciate it. Man. Thank you all right, guys,
Speaker 1: thank you all so much for hanging out with Roger
Speaker 1: and I. We should I'm planning on doing one tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I'm sure Roger's as well, so we will see with
Speaker 1: a good of of whattation we're heading next week, whether
Speaker 1: it's playing or prepping for a first round series. Tomorrow's
Speaker 1: game is at six, so we'll be going live right around.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate all of you for jumping on. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take this screen and put it into a
Speaker 1: podcast for those of you who missed the beginning. But
Speaker 1: as usual, Rose and I sincerely appreciate you guys and
Speaker 1: all your support, and we look forward to what should
Speaker 1: be a really fun playoff run. Ye appreciate everyone, thanks
Speaker 1: for hanging out. Enjoy